Two cruise lines studying Alicante as potential base

Two large shipping companies are interested in Alicante as a base port for their cruises.
The Diputación and the City Council of Alicante are working with several groups in the industry to try to encourage more shipping companies to choose ALicante as a base port for their cruise ships for Mediterranean voyages. Both the Costa Blanca tourist board and the Alicante ‘City&Beach’ project have made it clear that these large ships generate revenue in the city and even more so when they use the port as a starting point for their routes. The successful launch of the MSC Orchestra could soon be joined by two more ships from Carnival (United States) and Silversea (Monaco). In fact, a delegation from each of these companies visited the province this weekend to learn more about the port facility.

Tourist officials from Alicante were set to show the cruise companies the attractions of the area. Outside the port and the capital itself, the delegations were taken to a nougat factory in Jijona, followed by the Agost Pottery Route, Villajoyosa Chocolate Museum and other towns such as Alfaz del Pi, Altea and Guadalest. The objective is to convince them that not only could their ships pass through the port of Alicante, but that they use it as a starting point.

According to the experts, a cruise passenger spends an average of around 70 euros per day in each destination, but the amount can triple if the cruise line names the city as a starting point. This is partly because most tourists stay to sleep the night before boarding, to which excursions or restaurant reservations can be added.

The president of the Diputación de Alicante, Carlos Mazón, indicated that the tour operators’ visit at the weekend is intended “on the one hand, to bring our culture, gastronomy, local crafts and leisure closer to cruise passengers and, on the other, to favour that shipping companies establish their cruise base port in the city of Alicante, as has already happened in the case of the company MSC Cruises”.

“We have to especially support our commercial and tourist SMEs, as well as the gastronomy sector,” said Mazón, who insisted that the strategy of attracting cruise passengers and the development of the city as a base port “is fundamental and strategic for our future and we are going to promote it from the Diputación de Alicante”.